MacKenzie Scott has made another major philanthropic move, donating $45 million to The Trevor Project, the leading crisis support organization for LGBTQ+ youth.
According to The Associated Press, the unrestricted gift, confirmed at the end of 2025, is the largest in the nonprofit’s history and follows an earlier $6 million donation Scott made to the organization in 2020.
The Trevor Project said the funding arrives after several challenging years marked by leadership changes, staff reductions, and the loss of a significant federal funding stream last summer.
CEO Jaymes Black described the moment they learned about the donation as overwhelming. “I literally could not believe it and it took some time,” Black said. “I actually gasped.”
The organization operates an independent crisis hotline serving LGBTQ+ young people nationwide and reaches roughly 250,000 individuals each year. Until mid-2025, The Trevor Project also staffed a specialized option within the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which connected an additional 250,000 callers annually to counselors trained to support LGBTQ+ youth.
That program ended last summer, resulting in the loss of approximately $25 million in funding, according to the nonprofit.
Black said Scott’s team emphasized that the $45 million gift was intended for long-term impact rather than immediate spending. “We’re calling this our turnaround story,” Black said, noting that the organization plans to be deliberate about how the funding is deployed as it stabilizes operations and plans ahead.
Scott’s donation to The Trevor Project was not included in the $7.1 billion in 2025 giving she disclosed in an essay published on her website in December. In that essay, Scott reflected on the nature of generosity, writing, “The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated.”
The Trevor Project joins a long list of organizations that have received large, unrestricted gifts from Scott in recent years. In 2025 alone, Scott reported donating $7.1 billion to nonprofits, a sharp increase from $2.6 billion in 2024 and $2.1 billion in 2023. Since 2019, her total giving has reached $26.3 billion.
Higher education has been a major focus of Scott’s philanthropy. This year, she has directed more than $740 million to historically Black colleges and universities, including significant gifts to Howard University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Dillard University, Lincoln University, Bowie State University, Norfolk State University, Winston-Salem State University, and Spelman College.
Her donations to HBCUs since 2020 have now exceeded $1.2 billion.
Scott has also expanded her support to tribal colleges and Native-serving organizations. In recent months, Little Priest Tribal College, Bay Mills Community College, and Nebraska Indian Community College each confirmed multi-million-dollar gifts.